Lab case tracking for dental practices
Lab case tracking for dental practices is a SaaS idea for practice managers at independent dental practices and small groups, priced to test at $39 a month per practice. Lab cases leave with a paper slip, and the due date lives in someone’s head. With it, dental practices log every case sent to the lab and see which ones won’t be back before the patient’s appointment.
. A starting point we wrote, not market research: run the 7-day test before you build.
What problem does it solve?
Lab cases leave with a paper slip, and the due date lives in someone’s head. When a crown isn’t back the day before the fitting, staff ring the lab and rebook an annoyed patient.
Why now: Many practices now send scans to labs digitally, yet nothing tells the front desk when each case is due back.
What do they use today?
Most practices rely on the paper slip, a whiteboard in the back office or a sticky note by the phone. Late cases are noticed when the delivery fails to arrive, not before.
How does it work?
When work goes to the lab, the front desk logs the case with the lab, the due date and the patient’s appointment. A warning appears if the case won’t be back in time, so staff chase the lab or rebook before the patient arrives. Cases move across a board from sent to received, fitted or remade, and each month a report shows late and remade cases by lab.
What goes in the first version?
- Log each case with lab, due date and patient appointment
- Warnings when a case isn’t back before the appointment
- Case board by status: sent, received, fitted or remade
- Lab directory with contacts and usual turnaround times
- Monthly report of late and remade cases by lab
Who pays, and how much?
- Who pays
- Practice managers at independent dental practices and small groups
- Price to test
- $39 a month per practice
A flat price per practice suits an independent office where one practice manager handles lab work for everyone. A small group pays for each practice it runs, with no per-person count to maintain.
How to test it in 7 days
- 1Ask five dental practice managers how they know a lab case is back before the fitting.
- 2Ask in online dental office manager groups how often late cases force a rebooking.
- 3Show two local practices a one-page mock-up of the case board and ask what’s missing.
Where to find the first customers
- Dental office manager groups on Facebook
- Regional dental associations and study clubs
- Dental labs that want fewer chasing calls
What are the risks?
- Cases link to patients, so privacy rules for health data apply to every record.
- Labs won’t log in, so updates depend on front desk staff marking cases received.
How to build it on shipanysaas
5 of the parts it needs are already in the kit. Get the kit, open it in Claude Code, Codex or Cursor, and paste the starting prompt.
- Already in the kit
- Teams and roles
- Billing
- Admin panel
- Emails
- In-app notifications
- You build
- Case records with due dates and statuses
- Late-case warnings and lab directory
- Monthly late and remade case report
See the starting prompt
You are in a fresh copy of the shipanysaas starter kit, a pnpm and Turborepo monorepo: the Next.js web app is in apps/web and the Supabase database, with its migrations, in apps/web/supabase. Help me build the first version of Lab case tracking for dental practices. Read AGENTS.md first, then the AGENTS.md in every folder you work in: the kit's rules there win over your defaults. When a skill in .agents/skills (also in .claude/skills and .cursor/skills) matches a task, use it. ## The product - What it does: Dental practices log every case sent to the lab and see which ones won’t be back before the patient’s appointment. - Who pays: Practice managers at independent dental practices and small groups - Their problem: Lab cases leave with a paper slip, and the due date lives in someone’s head. When a crown isn’t back the day before the fitting, staff ring the lab and rebook an annoyed patient. - Price to test: $39 a month per practice (a plan in apps/web/config/billing.config.ts) ## Build only this first version 1. Log each case with lab, due date and patient appointment 2. Warnings when a case isn’t back before the appointment 3. Case board by status: sent, received, fitted or remade 4. Lab directory with contacts and usual turnaround times 5. Monthly report of late and remade cases by lab ## Already in the kit: reuse it, never rebuild it - Teams and roles: team accounts with members, roles and invitations - Billing: Stripe or Lemon Squeezy subscriptions, per seat or usage-based, and one-off payments - Admin panel: a super-admin panel that needs two-step sign-in - Emails: transactional email through Resend or Nodemailer - In-app notifications: a notifications bell in the web app ## New code it needs - Case records with due dates and statuses - Late-case warnings and lab directory - Monthly late and remade case report ## How to work 1. Plan first: list the database tables (with row-level security, so each team only sees its own rows), the pages and the server actions for the first feature. Then stop and wait for my OK. 2. Build one feature at a time with the kit's own UI and form components, with a migration for every schema change and user-facing text in the translation files. 3. After each feature, run the verification steps in AGENTS.md, fix what they find, and tell me what you built and what comes next. ## Rules - Ask me before you add a dependency, delete a file, or change sign-in, billing or the admin panel. - Leave the parts of the kit this product doesn't use as they are. Done when every first-version feature works for a signed-in team and the AGENTS.md checks pass.
Guides for the parts it uses
Want ideas for your own skills?
The free generator writes three while you watch, each with a plan and a starting prompt. Or paste this idea into it for two sharper versions.
More ideas: Health and wellness
Cancellation waitlist for physio and chiropractic clinics
When a patient cancels, matching patients on the clinic’s waitlist are offered the slot, and the first to accept takes it.
New-client enquiry matching for counselling practices
Counselling practices with several therapists take every enquiry in one place and match each person to a therapist with openings.
Trial class follow-up for boutique fitness studios
Boutique studios log every free trial visitor and send timed follow-ups, so staff know who to call before interest fades.